


Things Sure Have Changed

by StarlightSystem



Series: Transcendence AU [2]
Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Alternate Universe - Transcendence (Gravity Falls), Bad Parenting, Gen, Trans, Trans Dipper Pines, Trans Male Character, it’s short and it goes from 0 to 100 in about 30 seconds have fun
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-19
Updated: 2019-05-19
Packaged: 2020-03-07 14:57:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18875494
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarlightSystem/pseuds/StarlightSystem
Summary: Dipper and Mabel’s parents aren’t too happy to discover that they now have a demon son. However, it’s not the “demon” part that bothers them…(or: How Grunkle Stan Handwaved His Way Into Keeping The Twins In Gravity Falls)





	Things Sure Have Changed

**Author's Note:**

> This fic takes places in the Transcendence AU. Read more about it on [the blog](http://transcendence-au.tumblr.com/)!

"What do you mean he's a demon?"

Mabel looked at her feet, trying to make herself as small as possible. This wasn’t going to be easy. She glanced over at her brother, who was floating next to her. Dipper, usually a bastion of anxiety, seemed oddly calm, possibly even bored. He noticed her looking at him and gave her a quick, toothy smile, which was probably supposed to be a show of support but kinda just reminded Mabel how hard this was going to be. After all, she had to explain to their parents that their son was now a demon.

Dateline: two weeks post-Transcendence. Summer was over. Stan had tried to delay this as long as possible in order to keep the twins safe while they came to terms with the changes in their lives, but at the end of the day, he knew that they weren’t his kids. Mark and Anna Pines got to wake up one gorgeous August morning to a lovely phone call from Mark's uncle telling them that their children had been involved in… an incident. Dozens of scenarios flew through their heads as they sped over to Gravity Falls, Oregon, but they hoped and prayed that it wasn’t a big deal, that Stan was being a cryptic jerk, and that they’d all laugh about it later.

Unfortunately, their greatest fears were confirmed when they arrived at the Mystery Shack to find not two twins, but one. Barely holding it together, they fawned over Mabel and somehow managed to override Stan’s gruff pleas to let him just _explain_ what was going on, and that the situation wasn't quite what they thought. It wasn't until Mabel raised her voice that her parents wiped away their tears and started to pay attention to her.

And then the questions began.

"What do you mean he's a demon?" their mother asked.

Mabel took a breath, and looked back up at her parents. "W-well, I bet you’re wondering where he is. He's still here, but now he's made of magic, and only I can see him, and-" she answered.

Anna Pines shook her head. "What do you mean, _he's_ a demon?"

Mabel's eyes grew to the size of silver dollars and she gulped, realizing her mistake. She looked at Dipper, who had floated to the ground and was sitting cross-legged with a massive scowl on his face. Oh right. He knew this was going to happen.

And how could he not? Even without his newfound demonic omniscience, he knew his parents weren't going to be cool about this. That's why he was so distant at home, why he would only ever really open up to Mabel, and why he was so exhilarated when he realized that a summer away from home would be the perfect opportunity take the secret that had been building up inside of him for years and give it a test drive. Really, it had all gone according to plan. Except for the Transcendence. And except for Mabel just blurting it out right now.

"Uhh-uh uh um," Mabel stammered, "I meant _she's_ a demon! Haha whoops! My good ol' sister Marie! What a brain fart that was!"

“What’s going on here, Stan?” Anna barked, turning to the man standing uncharacteristically silent in the back of the room. “She’s babbling about boys and demons. What kind of things have you been telling her? Does she even know what happened to her sister?”

Stan started to say something in response, but Mabel couldn’t hear him over the anxious pounding in her ears. Her mom and Stan were gesticulating wildly in slow motion, while her Dad was awkwardly grasping his chin, face turning red as a beet. Was it from sadness or anger? Probably anger. Wait, definitely anger.

Dipper saw Mabel start to hyperventilate, and put his hand on her back. Mabel was often calm (excitable, even) in the face of danger, but if there were two things that could bypass that calm, it was the two people standing in front of her. "Mabel, it's okay," he said.

"Is it, Dipper?" Mabel responded, her head jerking up and looking at her brother. "I didn't mean to blow your secret, honest, but, everything's been so crazy this summer, and I actually _forgot_ that you- you were…"

Dipper nodded furiously. He really didn’t feel a single bit upset at Mabel. It actually made him smile, to think that she was so supportive of him that she forgot that he used to be any other way. Plus, was there even a reason anymore for him to be afraid of his parents? All bets were off now that he was a demon. "Everything's different now,” he said. “There’s literally nothing Mom and Dad could do to ‘fix me’ or whatever. Who knows, they might even try to understand.”

Mabel tilted her head. “‘Who knows’? Don’t you know, like, everything?”

“I don’t know?” he responded, shrugging. “I know lots of things. One of those things is that the future is never a guarantee, even to me. You’ve gotta focus on the present so that things can be good in the future. That, I am sure you can do. Besides,” he added, giving his sister a smirk, “I also know that in a few minutes, they’re going to start to think you’re talking to yourself.”

Mabel let out a giggle. "Oh, right," she said. Feeling reassured by her conversation with Dipper, she turned back to where Stan and her mother were still arguing, and loudly cleared her throat. "Okay, Mom and Dad! Bro-bro says it’s alright for me to let this cat out of the bag. I'm gonna tell the truth! Drum roll!” She mimicked bapping some imaginary drums, and Dipper had to stifle a laugh. “Alright: Dipper is trans! I dunno if you know what that means but basically he's been a boy all summer. I know we lied to you, but- hey wait a minute. Why are you more freaked out about that than him being a demon?"

"Mabel." It was the first time their father had spoken up since he had stopped crying, and both Dipper and Mabel could hear the anger in his voice. "Marie isn’t a boy. She’s not invisible, and she’s not a demon, she’s your sister -- our daughter. I know you think this is funny but it’s not, and it is _horrible_ that you are disrespecting her memory because you can’t go a single minute without teasing her. Either deal with this maturely, or keep your mouth shut!"

"Mark," their mother cut in. She didn’t look angry anymore, and Mabel realized that she was actually trying to hold back tears. "Please give her a break. She doesn't know what she's saying." Turning to Mabel, she took a deep breath and said "Honey, I know this is hard to deal with, and your father is sorry for raising his voice. He's just as sad as you are, and we all deal with loss in different ways. I know you’re trying to make us feel better with these stories, but they’re upsetting your father."

"Huh?" Mabel asked, suddenly not knowing where this was going. She looked at Dipper, who was now rolling his eyes.

"They think I'm dead," he said flatly.

“Oh, duh!” Mabel smacked her forehead. That's why they didn't care that he was a demon. This was so unfair. This summer had been a life changing experience -- in Dipper’s case, literally! There was no way things could ever go back to how they were before, and for a while Mabel had forgotten that they’d actually have to go back home to their parents eventually. They were never going to understand. Why couldn't they just stay with Grunkle Stan? He was weirded out by Dipper's transformation, but he at least took the time to understand it. If only she could show her parents that Dipper was really still here. If only…

Dipper froze, seeing Mabel’s idea unfold within her mind. "No, Mabel, no no no no no," he stammered, a fresh wave of anxiety flooding into him. He may be a demon now, but those people were still his parents, the people who criticized him on every single thing about him they thought was different or weird. Sure, he knew they were going to be angry about his summer transformation, but it was another story for them to be angry at him with him right there to yell at. "Don't do it. They're not going to understand."

Mabel ignored him. Ever prepared, she reached into her sweater pocket and pulled out a sewing needle and a scrap of paper with a summoning circle drawn on it. It wasn’t anything fancy -- after the Transcendence, they did some research and found a weak summoning circle that was small enough to carry around on a piece of paper and could get a demon to show up without much fanfare. She had started carrying them both with her all the time, in case she ever needed something from her brother. And what she wanted now was for their parents to see him.

She pricked her finger with the needle, letting out a tiny drop of blood. Their mother gasped and dove forward. "Mabel, what are you doing?" she shouted. "That's it, Mark, we have to get her back to-" But before she could finish wrestling the needle out of Mabel's hands, she suddenly turned white as a sheet.

"Hi Mom, hi Dad," Dipper said awkwardly, materializing in the physical plane. His parents stared at him floating beside Mabel with obvious fear in their eyes. Who could blame them? Things sure had changed -- his eyes were black as coal, his teeth pointed like a shark's, his voice menacing and echoing. But he knew that wasn’t the problem. He wanted to tell his parents that, despite the changes, he was still their son. But he couldn’t, because his parents didn't think they had a son. They firmly believed they had brought two identical twin girls into this world, and it pained him to know that his parents couldn't even recognize him in his new form.

Anna and Mark Pines had just seen their daughter draw her own blood and summon a demon into their midst. Anna gasped. Mark passed out.

"Well, that went about as well as I expected," Dipper mumbled. "Anyway, hi Mom! It's me, Dipper.” He conjured a chair on the ground and floated into it, hoping to make himself seem less intimidating. “I-I know I look a little different, but it's really me. Some crazy stuff happened this summer and I think we all just need to sit down and calmly talk about it."

It was their mother's turn to hyperventilate. Clutching Mabel and trembling, she stammered  "Wh-what did you do with my d-daughter, demon?"

Under his breath, Dipper muttered, “This might be about the worst possible way I could’ve come out to my parents.”

Mabel squeaked from within her mother's vice-like grip. "Mom, that is Dipper! You have to believe us!"

"No, n-no!" their mother continued to stutter, louder now. "What are you saying, Mabel? That looks nothing like your sister! For goodness sake that's a boy! Did he do anything to you? Did he do anything to Dip- to Marie? DID HE KILL HER?"

Dipper perked up. This was decidedly not a comfortable situation in the least, but despite everything that was happening, Dipper couldn't help the bubbling elation he felt when his mother said he was a boy. He didn’t know whether the way he looked was a reflection of his self image, or if there was some metaphorical nonsense behind it, but after 12 years of being forced to be a girl, he was not going to question why his demonic form was male. "Mom-" Dipper started, but Mabel, crawling her way out of her mother's embrace, cut him off.

"Dipper is a boy!" she shouted. "He was too afraid to tell you because he knew you and Dad wouldn't like it, but that's the way he is! When we got to Gravity Falls he started dressing like a boy and he's been so much happier than he ever was at home!"

Anna stared open-mouthed at her daughter, almost more shocked to hear her yelling at her than she was to see a demon appear in the room. However, shock was soon replaced with rage. Getting back on her feet, she looked over at Stan and, voice trembling, asked “Is this true, Stan?”

Stan got that deer-in-headlights look, and scratched the back of his head. "Well, yeah Anna," he said. "When they showed up, they introduced themselves as brother and sister. It was pretty obvious what was going on, so I went with it."

Dipper blinked, and looked at his great uncle. Pretty obvious? How did he figure it ou- oh. A flash of omniscience informed Dipper that Stan had, in fact, been present at their birth. “Wait, and you just went with it?” Dipper breathed.

Anna scowled, tears starting to drip out of her eyes. "We TRUSTED you, Stan! Shermie said you were a deadbeat, but Mark stood up for you! We let you take care of our children for a whole summer, and you- you GOT ONE OF THEM KILLED. I don’t know whether to be more angry or disgusted! How could you encourage this, you-" she started.

"Because he's the best Grunkle ever, Mom!" Mabel shouted. "Because he cares about what we want, not just what he wants! We’ve been through so much this summer but you don’t even wanna hear about it because… because…!" Mabel trailed off and looked away, tears starting to crop up in her eyes.

"Mabel, it’s okay," Dipper said, floating out of the chair and over to embrace his sister.

"GET AWAY FROM HER!" Anna screamed, and sprang forward. She toppled over the surprised demon boy, and grabbed her daughter. "I cannot believe we let this happen. I cannot believe we let you come to this den of sin and summon literal actual demons, let you stay with someone indecent enough to let your sister turn into a cross dresser and negligent enough to let her get herself killed! It's by the dumbest of luck that you're still alive and safe, Mabel, and we're not going to let this happen again. Mark!" she shouted at her husband, who was starting to regain consciousness. "We're getting out of here. Immediately. Get Mabel's things. I'm taking her to the car."

"Dipper!" Mabel cried through tears as she was pulled out of the room by her mother.

"Mabel, N̏O͋͂ͪ̐̄̓̚͏̴͔̻̳̞̥̟̺̳!" Dipper screeched inhumanly. His normally coal black eyes started to fill in with gold, and his skin started to glow in a brickwork-like pattern. Flapping his bat wings, he propelled himself toward the door. His mind was starting to blank out -- all he knew was that he needed to save his sister, his best friend, the only person who could keep him grounded and human and--

"Dipper, stop!" Grunkle Stan shouted, jumping into Dipper's trajectory. The demon came to a grinding halt, barely avoiding colliding with his great uncle.

"Stan, move, I̷̟͕͔͊̑́͆͂̉ͧ ̙͓̳ͪ̊̄ͪ͆̓ͨͮnë͖̼͓͉̗́̅̏̋ͩ͑̚e̵̛̗͐̄̌ͤ͠ḑ̰̬̦̎͜ ̢̬̗̥͖̜͗ͫ̍t̩̩ͮ͊̚͟o͍ͫ̋ͯ ͓̗̲̅̊ͣ͛͡͠͡sͧ͗ͮ̅̂̿t̑̑̆͆͐̈́̾ͣ́҉̡̛̰̬̻̳̜̥͔ͅo͒ͨ̓͌̆̆̅҉͔̠̘͇͚̲p̶̭̫̰͓͑̏ͭ̋̀̔̾̅̎ ̡̘̰̼̣͔͆̄̽͒̚͢t̳̫̋̓̔h̏҉͚̗̠̖͘e̔ͩ͆̄͊͏̢͓̣m̛̫̯̝̮̥͖̿̈̌!" Dipper yelled, his words punctuated with a bloodcurdling echo.

"Yeah, but not like that, kid!" Stan replied. "You've gotta control those demon impulses, you looked like you were gonna kill them!"

"Y̡̥̹̞̘̬̜̻e̜̥̳͇̻ah͖̖͍͎̝͝ͅ?̛̘̜̰͚ ̭̥̱Ẉ̮͉̯͝h̥̰a͉̬̝t ̹̱̪̕ͅi̶̭̳̙̝̣̥f̣̰ ̠̭͍̪̥̘ṯh̟̼̩͇a̼t̩̖͔'̭͈͔̫s̤̮̱̻ ͕̞̟w͘h̩̞̲a̸t̮̣͕̱̳̪̹͠ ̡i̞͓̘t ̹̹͕̩͖̰ta̜͕̙k̜͖̙͔e͞s?͏" Dipper roared, and then did a double take. His mind was full of screaming, but ultimately he knew Stan was right. It was really scary to think about what he was now capable of doing at a moment’s notice, and how _badly_ some part of him really wanted him to do it all. But he was still human -- well, part human -- and he was going to act like it. As he calmed down, his skin slowly stopped glowing and the darkness started to return to his eyes.

Stan put his hand on Dipper’s shoulder. "Kid, if you kill them, we're gonna have a lot more problems on our hands than parents who don't understand you. Yaknow?"

Dipper sighed. He looked around the room, and thought about all the things that had happened this summer. Traveling through time. Switching bodies with Mabel. Seeing Grunkle Stan punch a dinosaur. Defeating a villainous demon, and then becoming one himself. Not having to be a girl for a single second (well, except for during the body switching thing). Being looked after by an adult who felt more like a parent to him than his actual parents ever did. Now it was all over, and he was powerless to do anything about it.

...powerless?

"Grunkle Stan, this is bad," Dipper said, breaking the silence.

"Yeah, kid, I got that," Stan replied. "But what can I do about it? They're her parents."

Dipper went silent again for a minute, and then grimaced. "You could make a deal with me."

Stan stared at him. "What?"

"Listen Stan, I know I can fix this. My powers allow me to do a lot of things, but I can’t do them for free. Offer me something, anything, and I can get my parents to give you custody of Mabel."

Stan narrowed his eyes. "You sure about this? I don't know if you've really got the hang of those powers of yours yet. Remember what happened when you tried to fix the roof?"

"Please, Grunkle Stan, I have to try," Dipper pleaded. He could see what his and Mabel's future would be like if they moved back to California, and a couple of golden tears sprung in his eyes. "We need to stay here. And we have to hurry -- Mabel’s summoning spell is going to wear off in 2.5 minutes."

Stan thought for a moment, and then nodded. "Okay Dipper. I'll make a -- hey wait a minute. Why do I gotta offer _you_ something? Shouldn’t you be offering _me_ something? I'm doing this for you!"

Dipper smirked, showing off a row of pointy teeth. "Hey, I know you want us to stay. I guess I'm a bit of a con man too, now."

Stan beamed, half in frustration, half in barely concealed delight. "You demonic rascal," he said. "Here's the deal. You get me custody of Mabel. Then I'll buy you and Mabel ice cream floats the size of your heads."

Dipper reached out his hand, which burst into a blue, ghostly flame. "Deal?"

Stan thought about the summer, thought about all the adventures he had with these two kids, and how much he cared about them. He thought about the boy and girl that had walked into his house in June and trusted him enough to keep their secrets -- the boy and girl he was sure he would do anything in the world to protect. Swelling with barely concealed emotion, he grabbed his great nephew's hand and nodded.

"Deal."


End file.
